Love In Time
by TStabler
Summary: Some people take little moments in time for granted, but when love is strong and deep, these brief moments mean so much. A (late) Valentine's Day one shot that finds the romance in the little things, in time. EO


**A/N: A belated Valentine, for a sister who reminded me that it's the little moments in time, in our lives, that show how much love there is around us, and of course between our favorite detectives. **

**DISCLAIMER: Dick Wolf owns SVU and all related characters. TStabler owns the following story.**

February 3rd

"I can't feel my legs," Olivia huffed, her cheeks and nose red, white clouds of breath escaping from her partly opened mouth.

Elliot chuckled, but he was just as strained. "Come on, it wasn't that bad." He smiled at the look she gave him, watching her peek at him through narrow disbelieving eyes. "Five miles, five minutes," he shrugged. "Sixty miles an hour."

She straightened up, her hands on her hips, still breathing heavily. "What?"

He tapped his watch, took a deep breath, coughed it out, and said, "Timed us." He winked at her. "We can still kick some rookie ass." He turned his head to look behind him, then he laughed. "We're lightyears ahead of them."

"Is that right?" She smirked and moved a few inches closer to him.

He wrapped an arm around her. "It is," he told her, returning her grin. "They won't see any of this," he whispered to her as he pulled her flush to him, bent his head, and pressed his lips to hers.

She forgot about the pain shooting through her angry hamstrings, she lost all sense in her body entirely, melting into his arms, wondering how they'd ended up here, but not minding at all.

February 7th

"I win," Elliot declared proudly, slipping his gun back into his holster.

Olivia dropped her gun, still clasping it in both hands. "How did...how the hell do you figure..."

"You said first to get three in the ten-ring," he reminded her, pointing at the paper, man-shaped, target several yards away. "I got three. Before you, I might add."

She raised an eyebrow at him from behind the safety glasses, and she smiled. "Well, fair is fair," she sighed. She holstered her gun and took off the large headphone-like gear off of her head. "You win. You get...anything you want."

"You know what I want," he told her, a smoky look in his darkened blue eyes.  
"You know..." he moved closer to her, "Exactly what I want."

She resisted the urge to push him against the glass barrier and kiss him as if her life depended on it, and simply nodded. "Where? And when?"

He gave her a sly smile as he pulled off his eyewear. "My place, nine-eighteen."

"That's a very specific time," she laughed.

He winked at her as he backed away from her. "Don't be late, but...uh...maybe you shouldn't be that early, either. Ya know, a...a guy's gotta groom for his lady."

"So, I'm your lady?" she laughed.

He nodded at her as he turned, heading back for the door out of the firing range. He tried to slow his heartbeat, rid himself of the pounding he felt whenever he was with her, and he looked up at the sky as he pushed open the door. Then he looked down at his watch again. Tonight, he thought, was going to change his life.

February 11th

"All right," Munch sat on the edge of Olivia's desk with a sigh. "Who is he, when do I get to meet him, and does Stabler know?"

Olivia looked up at him, confused. "If this is another one of your attempts at being my psychic friend, you need to..."

"Olivia," he said to her, leaning over, "Your eyes are brighter, you're more relaxed, and you haven't stopped smiling like that in months. Who is..." he stopped. He looked at her. "It's him."

"Will you keep it down?" she hissed at him. "You know what could happen if anyone..."

"If anyone, what," Munch scoffed. "Actually verbalizes the thought they've had for over a decade? You know we have a pool going. When did this happen, exactly? I had the whole month of November, and there's a lot of money riding on it."

Elliot, coming up behind them, dropped a cup of coffee on Olivia's desk before looking at Munch. "October twentieth," he said. "Someone a lot younger than you had that whole week blocked out." He straightened up and pulled on his tie. "That was one incredible birthday." He checked his watch, then looked up at Munch. "It was seven forty-five, if you really wanted to know, exactly." He shot Olivia a playful look before walking over to his own desk and sitting down, ignoring the flabbergasted look on Munch's face.

Olivia watched him closely. The slow, easy smile spreading across his face warmed her heart, and she couldn't help but smile the same way. That's when she knew. This was what love really felt like.

February 13th

"How long have we been out here?" Olivia mumbled, her eyes trained on an apartment building door on the other side of the street. She let her elbows drop to the dashboard as an exhausted yawn made its way up her throat and out of her mouth.

Elliot looked down at his watch. "Eight hours," he said, then he yawned just as she stopped. "Twenty-nine minutes." He rubbed his eyes. "It's almost midnight, no one has opened that fucking door since we parked this tin wagon, and if Fin doesn't get here with the coffee soon, I'm gonna..."

"Midnight," she whispered, a sad half-smile crossing her lips.

Elliot hummed. "Yeah, why?"

"El," she shifted her weight to look at him for a brief moment before shooting her gaze back toward the apartment. "Midnight. Tomorrow is..."

"I know what it is," he interrupted, reaching his hand over to brush her hair behind her ear. "I know what it is, I have plans, but I...I know if this isn't over...then it's gonna be spent in this sticky, smelly, dented, garbage-filled, maroon piece of shit."

She laughed, but she shook her head and quieted with a soft exhale. "I don't care where we are, El. As long as we're..."

"Together?" he finished. He smiled, a grin that met his ears, and he said, "Yeah, Liv. Me either."

"We're on," she said, suddenly stiffening and pointing to the door, swinging open. "Call him."

"Already dialing," Elliot affirmed, his phone in one hand, his gun in the other. They got out of the car and headed for the men who'd come out of the building, both hearing the sirens whirring from around the corner.

They raised their guns, moved closer to each other, and stalked toward their suspects just as they'd promised to do everything: together.

February 16th

"I am..." Olivia paused to kick off her shoes, "So tired."

Elliot yawned as he locked the door behind him. "Exhausted," he muttered through an open-mouth. "How...I mean we've been doing this job a long fucking time, but how the hell does someone not say a single fucking word for three days?"

"Technically it was only two," she pointed out as she plopped on the couch. "And what the hell was up Cragen's ass? Telling us we couldn't leave the room until he talked? Does he realize he has four other detectives?"

Elliot sat beside her, pulling her legs into his lap. He rubbed her feet, pressing into the arches, and he smiled as her satisfied moans hit his ears. "Maybe he just needed his two best on it?"

Olivia chuckled, her head lolling back and to the right. "What are those?"

Elliot looked to where she was pointing. "Oh, uh...roses. I got you roses. They, um...obviously they died before you got to..."

"Roses?" She popped her head up and gave him a goofy grin.

He laughed at the sparkle in her eyes, the way she all but beamed at him. "Yes, roses, Liv. I also had reservations at Atelier, which I had to make...pretty much the day after you agreed to go on a single date with me."

"Someone was optimistic," she teased.

He moved his hands up her thighs. "Someone knew a good thing when he got it," he nearly growled at her. He pulled, bringing her entire body closer, into his lap. He rubbed his nose against hers, kissed her softly, and said, "Once I got you, I knew I was never letting go."

"Never?" she asked, her eyes searching his, her lips dragging over his, her hands tangled in his short hair.

He shook his head, nuzzling her as he did so. he looked at her and opened his mouth to speak, trying to find the right words. "Liv, you knew...you have known...how I felt for...for so fucking long. You had to know that when this...we...happened, it'd be forever."

She blinked at him. "Forever's a long time, El," she whispered, a hint of fear and uncertainty in her words.

He kissed those fears away, running his hands along her back. "For better or worse. I promised you that a long time ago," he said to her. "I don't break the promises I make to you."

She burrowed into the crook of his neck and breathed him in, so deeply. "I know it's late but...I got you something. For...you know."

"Valentine's Day?" he laughed. "You can say it, the words don't bite."

She rolled her eyes and hit him lightly in the chest. "Yes, for Valentine's Day, but...uh...it's in the bedroom."

He watched her move off of him. His mind raced with thoughts, images of a thousand things flying through his head at sixty miles an hour. "Liv, what..."

She pressed a finger to his lips, then pulled him off of the couch. "You just stay on the bed..." she said as she led him into the bedroom and pushed him down to the mattress gently, "And I will be right back."

He swallowed hard as she grabbed a pink and black bag off of his dresser and headed into the bathroom. He looked at his watch, and with narrow eyes and determination, he pulled it off of his wrist and tossed it onto the night stand. Tonight, he decided, he was going to completely lose track of time.

**A/N: Sorry for the wait on this, and the lack of updates this month. I was busy with a new novel, which I couldn't have written without your support. Much Love.**


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